EE doubles 4G base as revenues fall three per cent

Prepay customers plummet 12.5 per cent to 9.9 million but contracts grow by 4.7 per cent

EE doubled its 4G base in the first six months of 2014 as its turnover fell by three per cent from the same period of last year to £3.1 billion.

Its 4G base grew to 4.2 million at the end of June, adding 1.3 million 4G customers in Q2 (April-June) which EE claims is the best ever performance by a European operator.

It also recorded a like-for-like second quarter decline in revenues of 2.5 per cent to £1.56 billion. EBITDA grew by £50 million to £657 million compared to the first six months of 2013.

Despite this total connections recorded a quarterly like-for-like decline to 30.8 million (Q2 2013: 31 million) driven by a fall of 12.5 per cent in prepay to 9.9 million (Q2 2013:11.3 million).

Contracts grew by 4.7 per cent to 14.6 million (Q2 2013: 14 million) and it added 240,000 contract customers in Q2. Postpay now accounts for 59.7 per cent of EE’s customers, excluding MVNOs and M2M, an increase of 4.1 per cent.

Connections via MVNOs grew by 4.1 per cent to 3.7 million, up from 3.5 million in the second quarter of 2013.

Churn held steady at 1.1 per cent on contracts and fell to 1.9 per cent across its total mobile base (2013: 2.7 per cent).

The operator says that 5,500 corporations are now using its 4G service and that 88 per cent of new B2B customers are choosing the service. 72 per cent of new contracts chose 4G tariffs.